GAO Bid Protest Report of 2015 Analysis

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) Report Exposes Most Prevalent Grounds for Winning Protests

Recently, the GAO has released its annual Bid Protest Report for 2015. In this report, the GAO identified the 5 most prevalent grounds for sustaining protests. If you are considering whether to file a protest against the Federal Government after reviewing your notice of unsuccessful offer or debrief, you should read the information below and immediately consult with an experienced GAO bid protest attorney because deadlines are very short. The most common grounds for sustaining a bid protest against the Federal Government are ranked below by the GAO in the order of precedence:

Unreasonable Cost or Price Evaluation: Under this ground, the protester should check

whether an agency’s evaluation of costs or price was reasonable. In Computer Sciences Corp.; HP Enterprise Servs., LLC; Harris IT Servs. Corp.; Booz Allen Hamilton, Inc., B-408694.7 et al., Nov. 3, 2014, 2014 CPD Paragraph 331, the GAO found that it was not. In this protest, the agency’s cost realism analysis was unreasonable because there was no record to show that the agency conducted an independent assessment of whether labor hours, skill mix, and labor mix were sufficient to successfully perform the requirement. Specifically, the GAO noted “… we agree that the agency’s explanation of its cost realism evaluation fails to demonstrate any analysis of the realism of the widely varying labor hours proposed by the offerors.” The GAO sustained the protest. READ MORE….